| DIY Home Theater December 2004
 Building a New Room
Last time, I
discussed a simple makeover to transform an existing room into a modest home theater. This
time we’ll look at a more ambitious project: building a room for a home
theater. I’ll talk about the room as if it’s being built in a basement, but it
could just as easily be built in an unused garage. Unlike the minor improvements I
discussed last time, this is a pretty major undertaking, so thinking hard about a budget
and schedule before you begin will pay off in the long run. As carpenters are fond of
saying, measure twice, cut once.
Building a new room will take time, patience, and, perhaps
most important, agreement from your spouse. When I first floated the idea of building a
theater in the basement, I was met with rolled eyes and the same look that had greeted my
last few audio purchases. I softened the blow somewhat by pointing out that, by building
the new room, I’ll inadvertently also be building a storage and laundry room, and our
basement will stop looking like a junk yard. I’m not sure that really sold her on the
idea, but it didn’t hurt; I continued my planning.
My basement is pretty typical. It currently consists of a
utility/work room that holds the furnace, boiler, and workbench; a bathroom; and a large,
open space. In one corner are a laundry sink, washing machine, and dryer. The usable space
is approximately 16’ by 20’. At first this sounded like a decent-sized space to
work with, but as I’ve thought about it more, it’s turned out to be less than
I’d hoped for.
The most serious design problem is that two large poles run
through the space. Because they hold the house up, I have to work around them. It would be
possible to remove them and move the supports elsewhere, but only at great cost of
money and time, including hiring the services of an architect and engineer. I won’t
be following that course of action, but it’s an option for the truly obsessed.
I worked on this problem for weeks and consulted friends
and family about it. Finally, I’d worked out a plan that would put one of the poles
inside a new wall and the other toward the back of the theater room -- not ideal, but the
real world doesn’t always provide us with what we want. By the time I was finished
solving this problem, I had a rough floor plan: The theater room will be 16’ by
11’; the new, adjoining laundry room will be 12’ by 7’. This leaves space
for an attractive foyer at the bottom of the stairs that will give easy access to the
rooms, and where I can put up shelves for books, DVDs, and CDs.
The house’s previous owner had put up a thick drywall
ceiling, which has turned out to be a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because I
don’t have to worry about putting in a drop ceiling or drywalling it myself, a curse
because it covers all of the pipes and electrical wiring. Following through with my plan
will require careful nailing during framing. The previous owner also put down an
acceptable carpet that’s rugged and industrial; it can stand up to some punishment,
and the color isn’t offensive. A ceiling and carpet don’t make much of a start,
but they’re two things I’m glad I won’t have to worry about.
It is easiest to plan if we think about the things that
need to be done by placing them in different categories. First come the pre-construction
and construction phases, which include all of the building projects that will need to be
done. Second is the equipment phase, which includes all of the home-theater equipment and
setup required for watching movies. Last is the design and decorating phase -- painting,
as well as all of the final touches that will complete the theater.
Pre-construction
Before we start having fun with our tools, there’s
lots of pre-construction to do. This is serious work, and we need to make sure we have a
real plan in place. There are at least three important steps before we do anything. First,
we need to break out the tape measure and measure where the walls will go. You may find,
as I did, that your original plan simply won’t fit in the space you have available.
The best thing to do is to get some graph paper and a
pencil and make a drawing to scale of your available space. Once you have that, you can
try out several plans on paper. Make sure to think about where your screen and projector
(or television) will be placed in the room. You don’t just need a good-sized room,
but a room that will allow you to have the size of screen you want. If you know which
projector you’ll be using, you can figure out exactly what size screen you’ll be
able to accommodate. If you haven’t yet settled on a projector, you should work out
the screen sizes for some likely candidates. Once you’ve determined these
measurements, you can move on to phase two of pre-construction.
The second thing to do is to consult contractors for the
construction and electrical work. Even though we want this to be a do-it-yourself project,
it doesn’t hurt to know how much it would cost to have someone else do the work. You
might, for example, decide that it’s more economical for you to contract out some of
the work. Getting estimates will help you decide which way is best for you. In the case of
the electrical work, I think it’s imperative to get the opinion of a licensed
electrician. Obviously, we’ll need some power outlets, but we’ll also need
speaker wire run to all of our speaker locations and cables run to our projector location.
Some of these things can be done by the careful DIYer, but if you don’t have the
knowledge or skills required to install some cables, you should have the electrician do
the work. Be sure to explain to the electrician what your plan is for the room, and that
there will be more than just power lines being run through the walls (speaker cables, for
example).
In order to give the electrician as much information as
possible, plan out what you’ll want him or her to do. For example, my construction
plan left only one outlet in the theater room. I want at least three dedicated 20A lines
in the room, and marked their placement on my plan. The electricians might offer
suggestions and changes, but make sure they understand why you want so many lines
into one room.
Third, once our plan is in place and we’ve consulted
contractors, we’ll need to go to the home center and price out our project. While I
won’t need any exotic tools, I’ll need to rent some tools from the local home
center. I’ll need a good saw for cutting studs to size, a nail gun, and a
powder-actuated nail gun for nailing the studs into the foundation. Make sure to factor
the cost of the rentals into your budget, and make sure you know how to reserve these
tools in advance -- you don’t want to be all set to start construction, only to find
there are no nail guns available.
The hardest part of these early phases is not
rushing. Once you have a design that you’re happy with, put it aside and don’t
think about it for a few days. When you have a few days behind you, you’ll be able to
look at your design with a fresh eye. If you’re like me, you’ll find some things
that you overlooked, or some even better idea will have occurred to you. For example, I
had overlooked the need for a power outlet on the wall that the screen will be placed on.
In fact, I scrapped my first three plans because I kept rethinking and tinkering with the
design. The more details you work out now, the easier it will be when it comes time to
start work and the happier you’ll be when it’s finished.
Once you have your final plan in place and a budget worked
out, you may want to visit your local building office and see what kinds of permits
you’ll need to get to start construction. You’ll likely need not only a sketch
of what improvements you’re making, but also a copy of the budget (permit cost is
often proportional to the cost of the project). Your local officials will be able to give
you some help in making sure everything is up to your city or county’s building and
electrical codes.
Looking ahead
Having taken the time to plan and get permits, you can
start working on the actual construction of the theater. The construction process consists
of two parts: carpentry and electrical. The carpentry can be handled by most anybody
willing to take his or her time and not rush. The electrical work, on the other hand,
should be done only by someone who is competent, experienced, and licensed. If you are
such a person, then you’ll be able to save lots of money by doing it yourself. If
you’re not, be prepared to pay for an electrician, at least to run your power lines.
The first carpentry step is to frame the walls. This is not
difficult work, but two people will make it go more quickly and, especially if you’re
inexperienced, will make sure you’re in agreement before doing something you may
regret. Framing for a job like mine could take as little as a day; two or three days might
be more realistic.
After the framing is done, you may want your electrician to
come in to make sure that where you want to put wires meets your local code. Once
you’ve run some preliminary wiring, it will be time to put the drywall up. If you can
handle this, then everything else will be a cakewalk.
Next time I’ll talk about exactly how to frame the
walls and put up drywall, and discuss the electrical issues. So grab your nail gun and
level. Next time, we’re putting up walls!
...Eric Hetherington
erich@hometheatersound.com
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